20 February 2012

So, there was about a minute way back in January when I thought I'd put together a post about my 2012 spiritual mentor/guru, kind of like I did with Joe Strummer about this time last year. Having somebody to 'emulate' felt kind of nice, like I could follow a path somebody else laid down since it sometimes felt like I was doing this in the dark. I wrote a little about Strummer's independence, especially during his time with the 101ers, when they had to use improvised mic stands and speaker cabinets because they were flat broke and how that didn't let that stop them from playing.

Don't get me wrong, I have many personal acquaintances from Seton Hill and Pennwriters who have gone down a path to publication, and I'm not trying to paint myself as a maverick, or whatever. But this is the first time I'VE done it. When I formatted my eBook there wasn't anybody to consult because nobody I knew was really doing eBooks. When it came time to get a real book cover I didn't have anybody to discuss it with because that's the kind of thing a publisher takes care of, not the writer.

So knowing that guys like Strummer made mistakes on their path made me feel like the mistakes I made were okay too.

This year I was leaning toward Eddie Vedder as a guy to 'emulate.' Pearl Jam has been around for 20 years, and they did a lot of crazy things that were motivated by a strong personal ethos. They fought Ticketmaster (and lost) and tried to organize their own shows at non-Ticketmaster venues. They ended up being a band that put their fans first, and built a very loyal following by doing so. I guess ultimately I liked that they worked hard, and that it paid off in a way that let them pursue the music they wanted to pursue.

But in the end, this is really just a post about how shitty my year has been so far. On January 3 a kid flew around a blind corner and nailed us, putting our car up on a guardrail and causing a lot of body damage. Then the following Monday my doctor called and said I had polyps in my gallbladder and I'm going to have to have that plucked out. Spent the remainder of the month in pain, afraid everything I ate was going to make me sick.

So, Eddie, what do you say? How do I tackle this one?

On June 30, 2000, Pearl Jam was playing the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Nine fans were crushed or suffocated as the crowd surged toward the stage. The band cancelled the rest of its European Tour and retreated to America. A few months later they started a North American tour, prompting Vedder to say that "...playing, facing crowds, being together—it enabled us to start processing it."(Not that my situation is comparable, by any means.)

But it was good advice. So I'm back in the new book. Tallying a new word count. Reading and researching like I haven't done in years.